Blair Invokes God in Decision to Send British Troops to Iraq – New York Times

LONDON, March 3 — Prime Minister Tony Blair has indicated that God influenced his deliberations when he committed British troops to fight alongside American forces in Iraq.

But the quotes included in the article aren’t clear about what Blair said or might have meant (or at least not to me).

“That decision has to be taken and has to be lived with,” he said, according to the ITV transcript, “and in the end there is a judgment that — well, I think if you have faith about these things, then you realize that judgment is made by other people.”
Asked to explain what he meant, he replied, “If you believe in God, it’s made by God as well.”
“This is not just a matter of a policy here or a thing there, but of their lives and in some case their death,” he said. “The only way you can take a decision like that is to try to do the right thing, according to your conscience, and for the rest of it you leave it to the judgment that history will make.”

Of course if one is a devout Christian then it goes without saying that one should pray about important decisions. It is also certain that other devout Christians will disagree with your conclusions.

Rose Gentle, an antiwar activist whose son Gordon died with British forces in Iraq, said: “A good Christian wouldn’t be for this war. I’m actually quite disgusted by the comments. It’s a joke.”